The Needs of the Many
by I'maChair5050
Summary: After years of standing by and watching, Ash Mongoose has decided to take a stand against those that threaten Mobius and its inhabitants. There is only 1 rule he will follow: KILL THEM ALL. Rated M for violence, gore, foul language, death and lemons. Everything belongs to their respective owners.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1 - The time for action**

Today was not a good day for the people of Mobius. Firstly, their beloved princess Sally had been roboticized by Eggman. Secondly, Ixis Naugus had returned, ruling the kingdom with an iron fist. Thirdly, Geoffrey St. John had been found guilty of the betrayal of the freedom fighters, but Naugus had overruled it. Finally, Antoine D'Coolette had been put into a coma after protecting former King Elias Acorn. These events had affected everyone who had been linked with the freedom fighters, but you'd be surprised to hear that the one being affected the most was none other than Ash Mongoose.

One would wonder why Ash was even affected by these events. He had an easy life and a great relationship with his girlfriend, the singer Mina Mongoose. But Ash was always a very introvert person. He never let his true feelings be know, not even to Mina, whom he loved dearly. So, on a dark mobian night, Ash found himself sitting on his bed, in his house in Knothole, thinking about what to do. If something drastic wasn't done, Eggman or Naugus would eventually come for him and eventually, to Mina. One thing that he didn't want to see was Mina in danger.

After what felt like an eternity of thinking, he got up and left his house. No longer would he stand by and watch as the freedom fighters were picked off, one by one. For Ash, the time for action was now.

One rule that the freedom fighters followed is that they never used lethal force. To ash, this was flawed on so many levels. He believed that if you didn't kill the enemies, they'd simply vow revenge and try and get back at you. Ash wandered into town and purchased a pair of longsword blades, each costing 500 mobums and measured at 9 inches in length. Then, he headed off to the former freedom fighters HQ. He needed Nicole's help.

Nicole was created to be Princess Sally's personal computer & companion. Overtime, she'd gained a semi-physical form, but she'd lost that after Naugus had disconnected her from Mobotropilis's mainframe. But, she still had intelligence, which is what Ash needed.

As Ash entered the base, he flicked on the power. As the lights flickered on, Nicole's screen lit up, still without a physical form.

"Hello Nicole" Ash said to the screen.

_Hello Ash, _the screen read. _What brings you here?_

"I, erm, need your help"

He held up the blades.

"I'd like you to attach these blades into my forearms".

_What would the purpose of that be?_

Ash paused for a moment and replied boldly...

"To destroy the dark egg legion".

_But Ash, that's against freedom fighter regulations_, the screen read.

"I was never part of the freedom fighters to begin with," Ash replied. "And besides, if we destroy the dark egg legion, it will be permanent, this time round".

_I still won't get involved with cold blooded murder_.

Ash pondered for a moment. He knew she wouldn't be persuaded easily. Then, an idea came to him.

"I tell you what," he said. "if I can reconstruct your physical form hear and now, will you help me?"

_I'd love to say yes to that, but I sincerely doubt that your capable of that._

"I think you'll find that Ash Mongoose is actually pretty handy with computers," he told Nicole as he stepped up to the keyboard.

He pondered for a few seconds before he tentatively pressed a button on the keyboard. Then he pressed another. And another. And another.

His fingers gradually started to speed up. Before he knew it, his fingers were just a blur over the keyboard, machine-gunning keys like their was no tomorrow, with what seemed like a sea of computer coding on the screen.

After what felt like hours, Ash finally came to a stop and smashed the "Enter" key. Suddenly, the screen shut itself off. "Maybe a pressed a wrong key somewhere," he thought to himself. Then, the lights began to flicker. Suddenly, a spiral of computer coding erupted out of nowhere. Soon, the millions of random computer codes soon began to join together. First making two feet. Then two legs. Then a torso. Eventually, the coding tornado eventually subsided to reveal Nicole, now with her complete physical form, shaped like a lynx.

The two stood in silence, staring at each other. Then Nicole just rushed up to Ash, embracing him in in a tight, tear-filled hug.

"Thank you", Nicole choked through tears of joy. "Thank you!"

When they eventually split the hug, Ash held out his hand in a handshake.

"You still need to answer my question. Do you want to help me?".

Nicole looked at Ash's hand, pondering long and hard.

"I promise, I'll give you a job where you won't need to kill anyone".

With that, Nicole shook his hand.

"Deal".

Ash then held up the blades.

"oh yeah. I'd better sort that out." Nicole said, smiling.

Then, in one swift movement, Nicole put Ash on the floor with a single karate chop to the neck.

And with that, Ash just blacked out.

* * *

When Ash eventually came round, he was lying topless on the floor of the freedom fighters HQ. As he picked himself up off the floor, Nicole reappeared in front of him.

"Good morning, sleepyhead," said Nicole. "I did as you asked and got the blades attached".

"Well, thanks, but was the karate chop really necessary?" Asked Ash, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Yes. Yes it was." Answered the AI

Ash then noticed the there were two holes in his forearms and that they were slightly bulkier than usual.

"Well, now that I've attached the blades, I guess I'd better tell you how to use them", she said. "All you need to extend the blades is tense up your arm muscles and think about extending the blades. Go ahead and try it."

Ash brought him arm up to chest level and tensed their muscles, thinking hard about extending the blades. The blades then sprung out of the holes in his arm.

"To hide the blades, just do the same thing again", Nicole instructed.

Ash did as she instructed, and the blades disappeared into the holes.

"Perfect. Thank you." Ash said to Nicole.

"Alright then, hotshot," Nicole said to Ash. "Now what?"

"Simple, Nicole", Ash replied as he picked up his jumper from on top of the keyboard and put it back on. "We've set the game, now let's get it in motion".


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: A Team Comes Together**

Ash had taken the liberty of moving Nicole to a new base of operations: an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of Mobotropolis, mainly because there was much more space there than in the old HQ. Ash had spent all night moving the equipment into the warehouse. He sighed with relief as he placed the third and final computer monitor in the middle of the room, on top of the CPU unit which it was plugged into. As he plugged in the computer, the screen flickered into life and Nicole the Lynx appeared in front of the monitor.

"Well, what do you think?" Ash asked Nicole.

Nicole looked around the place and then decided, "It's grim."

"Nothing a little bit of love couldn't fix", he told her.

"Well, we're here. Now what do we do?"

Ash pondered for a few moments before he spoke.

"Okay, what I need you to do is to get me a complete fact file on both the Dark Egg legion and Ixis Naugus. This will give us a better understanding of the enemy," he instructed.

"Okay, but what about you?" Nicole inquired.

"I've got a few stops to make," Ash told her as he dashed out of the building.

* * *

For Espio the Chameleon, the day had started off the same as any other. He woke up, got washed, ate his breakfast and got ready to go out for the day. He stepped outside and checked his letterbox.

However, this time there was a note inside. This was odd because he rarely got mail from anyone. What was even stranger was the contents of the letter. It said:

_**DEAR ESPIO**_

_**MEET ME AT THE ABANDONED WAREHOUSE OUTSIDE OF THE CITY AT 6pm TONIGHT.**_

_**I HAVE A PROPOSITION FOR YOU.**_

Espio was immediately suspicious. Firstly, people rarely give him mail, and when they do, they always put their name on it. Secondly, what sort of proposition could they have in mind...?

Espio knew he had to check this out...

* * *

When it eventually turned 6pm, Espio arrived at the warehouse with his wits about him. He had no idea who was waiting for him inside, so had to be expecting the worst.

However, when he entered it, he found that there was no one waiting for him. He was actually a little bit disappointed that there was no one there.

However, when Espio made his first moves to leave, he was taken by surprise as he ended up bumping into Julie-Su.

"Julie? What are you doing here? Did you also get the letter?"

"I guess I wasn't the only one to recieve the letter then," the pink echidna told him.

Then, they were joined by Bunnie Rabbot, Rouge the Bat and Mighty the Armadillo.

As they were exchanging words, they heard a voice call out to them:

"So I see you've all met!"

They all turned to face the direction from where the noise came from. What they saw was a silhouetted figure standing on top of some scaffolding. The figure then jumped down and stepped into the light, revealing it to be Ash Mongoose. However, he wasn't wearing his normal casual clothes. Instead, he was wearing red and black combat fatigues, complete with a hood, cape and mouth mask.

"So what's this all about, Ash?" asked Espio.

"Yeah. Why did you have to drag us out to this dump?" Added Mighty.

Ash turned to Mighty and simply replied "because I need your help".

This immediately got the group intrigued.

"I brought you five here because I need you help to complete an objective: destroy the dark egg legion and anyone else who happens to threaten the planet".

"Ash, I hate to break it to you, but the freedom fighters have been trying that for years. What makes you think that we're going to be capable of pulling it off?" asked Rouge.

Ash smirked. "Simple." He continued. "To complete this task, we need to think in a way different to the freedom fighters. We need to think how they didn't dare to think and do what they would immediately say no to doing. Whilst they follow a strict set of rules, we need to follow only three. One: leave no teammates behind. Two: Your duty is to defend the innocent, not destroy them. Oh, and three: if you are ever in a fight with the enemy, don't fight to just win..."

The blades then sprung out of his arms.

"...fight to kill."

He sheathed his blades .The other mobians looked at him like he'd just gone mad.

"Are you MAD!?" yelled Mighty.

"Sugah, ah could never kill if mah life depended on it" Added Bunnie.

"Besides, if you start killing them, we'd be no better than them." finished Rouge.

"Not if you're defending the planet." Replied Ash

The three started voicing their concerns at exactly the same time, but were cut short by Espio.

"To be perfectly honest, I think that Ash is actually on to something here".

The three mobians looked at him like he'd also gone crazy.

"Let me explain. If we stop them without killing them, we're free of them for only a few days. If we kill them, we're free of the permanently".

He turned to Ash.

"I'm in".

Julie-Su then forced her way through the group.

"Espio has a good point. I'm in as well".

Ash held out both of his hands and they shook them.

"Welcome aboard. Your equipment is in the back room". Ash said, motioning towards one of the doorways. "Get it and meet me back here". The two mobians then jogged off, into the back room. Ash then looked back at the others.

"Are you sure you don't want to join our cause?"

All three of them shook their heads.

Ash sighed "Suit yourselves".

The three then exited the warehouse. As Ash walked over to the computer, Epsio and Julie-Su walked out of the back room. This time, they were wearing black and red combat fatigues, similar to Ash's and were carrying their own weapons of choice. Espio had a katana slung over his shoulder and ninja stars attached to his belt. Julie-Su had two small battle-axes slung over her shoulder and a high energy pistol in a holster, attached to her belt.

As Ash booted up the computer, the others gathered round.

"Now, before I start, I'd like you to meet one final member of the team".

To the surprise of the others, Nicole then appeared on screen.

"Hello there. I guess you two are wondering how I got my body back. Well, you'd be surprised to hear that Ash actually managed to recreate it for me," the A.I told the two recruits. "Basically, I'll be here to give your advice/intel on the enemy".

A panel then rose out of the keyboard, with three headsets on them.

"Take these." Nicole instructed. "These devices will allow you keep in contact with each other and me".

The three then placed the headsets on their heads.

"So, now what?" Asked Julie-Su.

"Simple," replied Ash. "We wait until the Dark Egg Legion or any other group of psychos launch an attack, then we head out there and take down that strand of the dark legion".

"Wait, why don't we just go after Eggman now?" Asked Espio.

"Not just yet because if we try and take him down now, he'll have backup. We eliminate his backup, he's got no one to turn to for help". Ash explained.

Just then, Nicole re-appeared in front of them.

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news", she told the group. "But I've just hacked into the Dark Egg Legion's communication link. They've just started an attack on the wolf pack. Apparently, they've also kidnapped Lupe".

"Well, then. I guess that's where we're heading."

"Oh, and two more things before you go. Firstly, I also heard that Sonic, Tails and Amy were also heading over there to try and rescue Lupe. Secondly, I left you three a little present outside, so that it will make your job a little bit easier". Nicole called out to them as they left the warehouse.

They soon discovered the present the Nicole was talking about, because outside the warehouse, propped up against a tree, were three black and red airboards. However, they didn't have time for a test flight. Without a second thought, Ash, Espio and Julie-Su grabbed their own board, hopped onto it and sped off into the distance.

The Dark Egg Legion would soon know fear...


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Operation Bloodstorm**

As the three mobians arrived in Wolf Pack territory, they dismounted their airboards and stood their for a few moments, keeping an ear out for trouble. It didn't take long for them to hear it. From not to far away, they heard the sounds of various energy weapons going off.

Ash turned to his teammates.

"Okay, here's what we're going to do. We're going to hit them fast and we're going to hit them hard. Leave no survivors."

"Roger that" came the reply as all three of them snuck into the forest.

They eventually came across the source of the noise. A group of legionnaires, led by Razorklaw were attempting to capture Queen Hathor, leader of the Felidae and ally of the wolf pack.

However, as they were about to jump out and attack the legionnaires, something unexpected happened. From another side of the forest, the legionnaires were then ambushed by a team of Wolf Pack freedom fighters, led by none other than Sonic, Tails and Amy. As they engaged the legionnaires in combat, Julie-Su came over the radio.

"Ash, what do we do now?" She asked.

"Stick to the plan, just make sure not to hit any of the others". He told her.

It seemed that the other mobians had failed to notice the presence of three dark figures hiding in the dense forest, as a lone ninja star flew out from behind a row of trees and bushes and struck one of the legionnaires in the side of the head, killing him instantly.

This caught everyone off guard, even the freedom fighters. They didn't keep fighting. They just stood there, looking at the now dead Legionnaire.

In fact, they were so distracted, they were completely caught off guard when a figure, clad in red and black combat fatigues, leapt out of the dense undergrowth and split a legionnaire in half with a massive battle axe, causing blood spray everywhere. Two more red-and-black clad figures then jumped out of the undergrowth and engaged the legionnaires in combat, mercilessly cutting them down in the same fashion as their teammate. One of them had a katana, the other had blades coming out of his forearms. As they tore into the legionnaires, the freedom fighters could only stand and watch and the legionnaires were mutilated.

Ash finally started to feel good. He was finally starting to make a difference for his planet and he was enjoying it. As he, Espio and Julie-Su cut down the legionnaires, more and more blood appeared on their fatigues. They were even keeping a personal kill count. Ash was on 12, Julie-Su was on 11 and Espio was on 14. Ash then promptly stabbed a legionnaire in the torso with both of his blades, lifted him up in the air and torn him in half, causing vital organs and more blood to fly everywhere.

At this point, Ash noticed that the freedom fighters were just standing there, watching in horror.

"Don't just stand there gawking, you morons." Ash yelled at them. "Go find Lupe!"

Sonic took a step forward to make protest, but Tails stopped him.

"Let's just do what he said." The fox told Sonic. "I personally don't want to get involved in that."

Sonic was had to agree, as he and the rest of the group sprinted off into the forest.

As the freedom fighters sprinted off, Ash, Julie and Espio finished off the last few legionnaires. As Julie-Su cut down the last one, she and the other two started to advance towards Razorklaw. At this point, he'd looked as if he'd just seen a ghost. He tried to make a run for it, but this didn't help as the three figures easily caught up to him, knocked him down and proceeded to hack him to bits as his screams of agony echoed across the land.

When the screams finally stopped, Razorklaw was an barely recognisable, bloody pile of mush on the ground. As the trio walked away, Ash was contacted by Nicole.

"Ash, this is Nicole. Status update. Over".

"We've just taken out a group of 30+ unexpecting legionnaires, including their leader, Razorklaw. Over."

"Roger that. By the way, a quick heads up: I've just hacked even further into the dark legion's comms and it turns out that Drago Wolf is also in the area".

"Roger. Can you give us an exact location?" Ash asked as he picked up an energy weapon from a dead legionnaire.

"They are..."

There was a pause before Nicole finally told them".

"Got it! He's at the Shazamazon temple, not to far from your position".

"Roger that. Ash Mongoose out".

The trio sprinted off in the same direction that the freedom fighters.

* * *

It turns out that Nicole had forgot to mention that there was more the just Drago Wolf at the temple. As the trio got closer to it, they noticed a big black shape hovering over it, partially obscured by trees. Once they reached the steps of the temple, however, they could properly see the egg shaped fortress with a moustache shaped piece of plating.

The Death egg had arrived.

As they started to make their way up the steps to the temple, they noticed that there were legionnaires sprawled all over the place, barely conscious. The freedom fighters had obviously been here. Julie-Su took the liberty of finishing them off with her pistol.

They had gone to the temple expecting a fight, but when they entered the inner chamber, all they found were an unconscious Drago Wolf and more unconscious legionnaires. Julie also finished them off.

"Okay, what I'm going to do is attempt to hack into the temple's computer systems and see if I can get it to self destruct". Ash told his teammates. "You two retreat to a safe distance".

Julie and Espio both agreed and jogged out of the temple. Ash then walked up to the main computer in the room and cracked his knuckles, before resting his hands on the keys. He tentatively hit a key. Then another. And another. Once again, his fingers were soon machine gunning keys like there was no tomorrow.

It didn't take long for a message to appear on screen:

_Self destruct activated_

_60 seconds._

As a siren blared, Ash proceeded to sprint out of the temple...

_45 seconds._

Jog down the temple steps...

_30 seconds_

And then proceed to walk away from the temple.

_5_

_4_

_3_

_2_

_1_

Suddenly, the whole temple was engulfed in an Earth shattering, eye melting explosion. It was like one of the gates of hell had temporarily opened right there and then. This didn't seem to bother Ash, though. He just kept on walking.

Espio and Julie-Su then stepped out of the undergrowth. Ash greeted them high fives and hand shakes all round.

"Okay, good job team." Ash told them. "Let's head back to base and wrap things up for the day".

"Wait! What about the death egg?" Asked Espio.

Ash turned around and noticed that the death egg had flown off.

"Ah, don't worry about it" He told Espio. "We'll get them soon enough."

As they began to walk away, Ash contacted Nicole.

"Nicole, this is Ash. All dark Legion forces in this area have been neutralised. Drago Wolf is KIA. The legion base within the temple has been destroyed. Returning to base. Thanks for the assist. Ash out".

"Copy that, Ash." Came the reply. "I await your arrival. Nicole out".

As the trio started walking back to their extreme gear, they chatted about the mission and compared killcounts. At this point, Ash had scored 15, Espio had scored 13, but Julie-Su had scored 31, due to her picking off those unconscious legionnaires.

They eventually found the place where they'd left their gear. However, as they were about to mount their boards, Ash stopped them.

"We aren't alone." He said. "I can feel it."

The team readied their weapons, slowly looking around to see if they really were being watched. Ash checked one side of the forest, Julie checked the other and Espio checked in canopy of the trees.

Suddenly, Ash spun round, grabbed something within a bush and pulled a dark legionnaire out of the bush, over his head and brought the legionnaire crashing to the ground. Ash then placed one of his hands on the legionnaire's neck, gripping it tightly. He then extended the blade on his opposite hand and held it within a few centimetres of their face.

However, there was something familiar about this legionnaire. Maybe it was the eyes peering out of the dark hood. They seemed, sort of, friendly.

As Ash sheathed his blade, he pulled back the hood of the legionnaire.

He and his friends couldn't believe what they were seeing as they stared at the legionnaire and Hershey the Cat stared back.

Ash removed his hands from the Cat's neck.

All he could manage to say was "No. Way."

The trio then promptly lifted Hershey off the ground and engaged in a massive group hug, pulling off their disguises.

"I can't believe you're still alive." Julie-Su told her.

As they broke the hug, they looked down at the legionnaire's outfit.

"Oh, I'd better explain this." Hershey told them. "Basically, after my mission went wrong, I hid amongst the legion as a way of survival. Plus, I could also perform acts of sabotage behind Eggman's back."

He promptly relinquished the disguise.

"Anyway, I need to get back up to speed. Firstly, I know that the iron dominion has been defeated. Also, I know that Ixis Naugus had returned. Is there anything else I need to know."

The others pondered in silence for a moment.

"Unfortunately, yes". Ash told her...

* * *

_**Author Note:**_

_**Cool guys don't look at explosions**_

_**They blow things up and then walk away**_


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: Vendetta**

Nobody likes to be the one to break bad news to people. It usually means you have to stand there and watch as the poor person starts crying. Ash knew this as he, Julie-Su and Espio took Hershey back to the warehouse. Once they arrived, Ash pulled up a couple of chairs. Once they'd sat down, Ash took a deep breath and told Hershey the whole story. He told her about Geoffrey's betrayal, Sally being roboticized, Naugus overthrowing Elias, Elias being forced into exile and Antoine sacrificing himself to save Elias.

Hershey was soon in tears. Not just about what had happened to Sally and Antoine, but mostly about what Geoffrey had done. When she'd married Geoffrey, he was considered a hero. Now he had become everything he had once fought against.

"I can't believe he'd do that." She said as she sobbed onto Ash's shoulder. "I loved him for being a hero".

As she pulled herself off Ash's shoulder, her sorrow soon turned to anger.

"That son of a bitch." She snarled. "I'll fucking kill him!"

Ash sensed a business opportunity.

"Maybe we can help each other then." He told her.

He held out his hand.

"I tell you what. I'll do a deal with you". He said. "If you join us, we'll help you deal with St John."

Without hesitation, Hershey shook Ash's hand.

"I'm in." She said.

"So are we". Called a voice from the entrance.

The four looked over to see Bunnie Rabbot and Mighty Armadillo standing in the doorway.

"Had a change of heart, did we?" Asked Ash.

"Not exactly." Said Mighty. "We still think that your methods are barbaric. However, we will admit one thing: It gets the job done effectively."

They both held out their hands. Ash shook both of them.

"Welcome aboard". He said.

Once the handshake broke, it was Bunnie's turn to speak up.

"So, now what?" She asked.

"Simple, we're wrapping things up for now. We plan on eliminating St John tonight. You three had better get armed and up to speed".

As the three jogged off to the back room, Ash turned to Nicole.

"Nicole, I want you to find the current location of Geoffrey St John".

"Roger that". She said to him.

Ash, Julie-Su and Espio then removed their gear and headed home, leaving Nicole to get the three rookies up to speed.

* * *

It was dusk when the three mobians returned to their base. As they walked in, they found their new recruits sparring with each other. This time, they were all dressed in their own red and black combat fatigues. Hershey's weapons of choice were two machetes and a sawn-off shotgun. Bunnie was armed with gigantic warhammer and an equally as massive machine gun slung over her shoulder. Mighty was equipped with two small single-handed hatchets and a kunai strapped to his wrist.

As Ash, Julie and Espio entered, Hershey, Mighty and Bunnie finished sparring. They all met in front of Nicole's monitor.

"So, have you found Geoffrey?" Bunnie asked Nicole.

"Yes. Yes I have." Replied the A.I. "He is currently checked into a penthouse on the top floor of the Royal Acorn Hotel. I'd personally recommend entering the penthouse through the balcony on the south side. I've also taken the liberty of acquiring some grappling hooks to allow you to scale the wall. They're in the back room."

The six found the grappling hooks and left for the Royal Acorn Hotel.

* * *

The six soon arrived at the south side of the hotel. As they looked up to the 15th floor, where the penthouse was, Hershey, Espio and Mighty detached the grappling hooks from their belts. Holding on to the ropes with both hands, they gave the hooks a twirl before throwing them upwards towards the roof. Once they reached the roof, they gave the grappling hooks a tug, allowing them to attach to it. Once the hook were attached, the group then began to rapidly climb the rope and ascend to the top floor. When all six were standing on the balcony, they were greeted by a large glass door.

Ash grabbed the handle and gave it a pull.

Locked.

The others joined in.

Still wouldn't open.

It was at this point that Bunnie stepped back and pulled out her warhammer.

"Stand back, Y'all." She said to them.

As the team moved out of the way, Bunnie charged at the door swinging her warhammer and hitting it so hard, it not only broke the door, it sent shockwaves through the other windows next to it, causing them to smash.

As the group stepped inside, one of the door in the room opened and Geoffrey St John stepped into the room, completely naked and dripping wet. He had a towel wrapped around his torso to prevent his man parts from showing off, which he was holding together with one hand. In his other, he was pointing an energy pistol towards the group.

"WHAT THE FUCKING HELL IS GOING ON OUT HERE?!" He yelled.

"I Don't think you should be pointing that at me." Hershey called out to him.

"What makes you think that?" He retorted.

Hershey then took a step forwards, pulled down her mouth cover and pulled back her hood, revealing herself to her husband.

Geoffrey didn't say or do anything at first. He just stood there, mouth open, still gripping the pistol. Tears soon started to form in his eyes. He then dropped the pistol and rushed over to Hershey, engulfing her in a massive bear hug.

Hershey responded with an astronomically hard kick to the crotch and an equally as powerful punch to the face, making him fall back onto the floor.

"wh...What the hell, Hershey?" He asked, sprawled on the floor.

"You know, when I married you, I though you were a loyal hero of Mobius." Hershey told him. "Now that I'm back, I now find that you're nothing but a conniving, two faced, cowardly traitor."

"What are you talking about?"

"I know what you did, St John. You turned on the freedom Fighters. You sided with Ixis Naugus. You tried to trap sonic in the special zone!"

St. John sighed.

"Alright. I did all that but only because I knew Naugus was powerful enough to win the war and unite Mobius.

Hershey unsheathed one of her machetes.

"Oh, did you make the wrong choice."

As she advanced towards him, St. John reached over to the gun he'd dropped. However, with one swift movement, Hershey swiped her machete at Geoffrey's hand, taking off three of his fingers in the process and causing blood to ooze onto the floor. Geoffrey screamed in agony.

The others then surrounded St. John and drew their weapons.

"See you in hell." Hershey said to him.

And as the night went on, screams of agony echoed across the land once again.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: Motive**

Sonic the Hedgehog hadn't stopped working since he'd gotten back from the Wolf Pack territory. Of all the memories he had of that day, one stood out the most. It wasn't rescuing Lupe or having to fight Sally. It was watching those three hooded figures tear apart that group of legionnaires. It wasn't just that which stood out about that memory, it was that they did it with an unbridled, unflinching ferocity, the likes of which Sonic had never seen before.

After he, Tails and Amy had rescued Lupe, they had returned to Knothole and explained what they'd seen to their friends. They were shocked and intrigued about what Sonic had seen.

It was roughly around this time that they had heard an explosion coming from where they'd rescued Lupe. As they rushed to the scene to investigate, they discovered that the Shazamazon temple had exploded, most likely set to self destruct.

After searching around of a while, the freedom fighters had come across a horrifying sight: Bodies. Dead bodies. Mutilated dead bodies. These were the dead bodies of the legionnaires that Sonic, Amy and Tails had seen the three figures slaughter. But what was most horrifying about it was when they found Razorklaw's body. It was only barely recognisable. His limbs had been hacked into multiple pieces. His torso had been split open and his vital organs were strewn all over the place, mostly in multiple pieces. His cadaver had been turned into a pulped, bloody pile of mush.

Sonic had almost puked his guts out at the sight of this.

Once Sonic had returned to Knothole, he'd spent the rest of the day trying to work out who those three figures were. He knew that Tails and Amy weren't part of that trio, as they'd also witnessed the legionnaires getting slaughtered. After a few hours of thinking, he'd come up with a long list of possible people in his head, but he was no closer to working out who they were.

"Oh well". He thought to himself. "I'll try again in the morning".

With that, he climbed into his bed and started drifting off to sleep.

However, it was at this point that Amy had rushed in.

"Sonic! You've got to come quick. Something's happened." She told him.

"What could possibly have happened at this hour?" Sonic asked as he climbed out of his bed. "Eggman never attacks at this hour."

"Geoffrey St. John has been murdered."

Sonic stood there in silence for a few moments before finally squeezing out one word

"What?!"

"He's just been found murdered in the penthouse at the Royal Acorn hotel.

Without another word, Sonic sped out of his house, through Mobotropolis, into the Royal Acorn, up the stairs and into the penthouse.

He arrived at the penthouse to find Tails knelt down, looking at a large blanket, covering over a strange looking lump in a massive pool of blood. On the other side of the penthouse, the glass door and windows had broken into millions of tiny pieces.

"What happened here?" Sonic asked Tails.

Tails got up.

"Well, I've just been speaking to the Hotel manager and an hour ago, their surveillance saw six figures, dressed in red and black combat fatigues..."

"Wait." Sonic interrupted. "There's six of them?!"

"Apparently so." Tails said. "Anyway, the footage showed them climbing up the south side of the building using grappling hooks. Once they were on the balcony, they proceeded to break down the door and brutally murder St. John."

Sonic looked over at the blanket. As he leaned over to lift it up, he knew it would not look pretty. As he lifted it up, his thoughts were confirmed.

The mangled corpse of St. John was in a state equivalent to the state of Razorklaw's body when they found it. But this time, Geoffrey's body was in a much worse condition. It didn't even look anything like St. John, as it had been mutilated out of it's appearance.

This time Sonic did throw up, as he dropped the blanket over the body again, turned towards a wall and spewed all over it.

"That is nasty." He said, gasping.

"There's one more thing I found." Tails said as he produced two rings. The first ring was covered in blood, presumably found on St. John's body. However, the second ring was exactly the same shape, size and weight of the first one, except it was completely clean.

Sonic stared long and hard at the rings. He knew both of them didn't belong to St. John, as he'd only see him wear one ring. However, he knew someone close to them had been worn a ring just like that.

As looked back at Tails.

"You don't think..."

"To be honest, it's entirely possible. Perhaps they told her about what he'd done."

"Well, all I can say now is that Naugus is going to be pissed."

Amy they arrived on the scene.

Sonic turned to her.

"Amy, I want you to spread the word. Hershey the Cat may still be alive. All we need to do is find her."

What they didn't know was that Hershey was only a mile away, discussing with her team who to kill next.

"Personally, I'd prefer going after Conquering Storm and the Raiju clan." She told them.

"Are you sure about that?" Asked Ash. "I mean, they are the best fighters in the legion".

"Yes, but that's why I think it would be better if we went after them first." She explained. "If we wipe them out, the legion would be on the back foot because they lost their best fighters."

Ash pondered for a moment.

"I can't fault that logic." He said. "Very well, then. We shall attack the Raiju clan tomorrow night. Anything else?"

"I was thinking about a name for our group." Said Mighty. "It would give us an identity then, rather than us being "guys in red and black combat fatigues"".

"What did you have in mind?" Asked Ash.

"I was personally thinking something like The Red Devils"

Ash pondered again for a moment.

" I like the sound of that." He said. "Okay, we are now officially The Red Devils. Anything else?"

Nothing.

"Very well then. Red Devils adjourned."

As the six started leaving the warehouse, Ash and Mighty were chatting to each other.

"So why exactly did you decide to start killing people?" Mighty asked.

"Simple." Ash replied. "I'd seen all these bad people do bad things and I didn't want them to even lay a finger on Mina, my girlfriend."

"You said that with a bit of a far away look in your eyes." Mighty told him. "Are you and Mina, like, childhood sweethearts or something?"

Ash gave a wry smile.

"Not exactly..."

* * *

_Flashback_

_7 years ago_

The sun didn't seem to be letting up. As the sun beat down on Mobotropolis, the students of East Mobian High School were enjoying a sweltering hot day outside during lunch.

Usually, the students would be split into small groups, going around and doing their own thing.

Today, however, all eyes were on the running track as almost all of the students were watching an all too familiar blue blur blast round, trying to beat his own personal best.

However, what most people didn't seem to notice was a lone figure, leaning against the school building, having his lunch.

Ash Mongoose never really liked being involved with a big group of people. It always made him nervous for some reason.

He didn't really like Sonic much, either. He thought he was too arrogant.

In fact, Ash didn't like a lot of things.

But he had his eyes transfixed on something he did like.

His eyes were transfixed on a girl. This girl was only a little bit younger than him. This girl had a beautiful face, flowing purple hair, a great figure, the singing voice of an angel and a pair of green eyes that you could get lost in.

This girl was Mina Mongoose.

Of course, there were many other girls who were as good looking, if not more good looking than her, but there was something about Mina that drew Ash to her.

Usually, he'd be too nervous to go over to her and ask her out, but he knew he wouldn't get many chances like this.

He stood up and slowly made his way over to her.

Of course, people easily forget that at one time, Mina was equally as obsessed as Amy, if not more, about Sonic.

This didn't seem to stop Ash from going over to her.

As he stepped up to her, Ash's heart was beating hard and fast. He actually felt like he was going to pass out.

"Uh, hi Mina." He uttered in a very nervous tone.

Mina turned to look at him. Ash felt like his heart was beating so hard it would break through his ribs.

"Uhhh...You want to go out sometime?" He asked.

He knew he wasn't that good at talking to girls, but that didn't stop him.

"Sorry, but no thanks." Mina replied. "I'm already in love with someone."

She turned back to face Sonic.

Ash felt as if he'd just been stabbed in the heart.

Sadly, he trudged back to where he was before. Things never went the way he wanted them to.

They would eventually.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6: Operation Fireball**

It was night time in the Dragon Kingdom. The full moon illuminated the landscape. There were no sounds to be heard. Just an eerie breeze.

Then, suddenly, the quietness was abruptly broken by a sound. Six sound. The rushing of air. Air boards. Six air boards.

The sense of eeriness was broken as the Red Devils blasted through the Dragon Kingdom, towards the Raiju Clan base.

Usually, the team chatted friendly on their missions. They'd talk about how their day went and what they did.

This time, they said nothing. They were psyching up for the mission because they knew they had a fight on their hands.

The Raiju clan weren't just a group of legionnaires, they were regarded as the best fighters in the world, let alone in the legion.

"Now, remember team" Ash told them over the radio. "These guys are the best group legionnaires in the world. There's also a lot of them, so expect a tough fight. Remember to keep on your toes and don't hold back about killing them. Killing Conquering Storm is our main priority here."

The Raiju clan base soon came into view and almost immediately, the group came across their first problem: the base was heavily guarded. Several ninjas were guarding the main door, whilst several more had the windows covered.

The team them jumped off their boards and dived into the bushes.

"Well, there goes our chance for a stealth mission." Ash said.

"Now what do we do?" Asked Hershey.

Ash smirked. He then unsheathed his blades.

"What we've been trained to do. Bunnie, your up."

Bunnie pulled out her machine gun, stepped out from behind the bush and slowly stepped towards the base.

Almost immediately, the guards were on her, blocking her way towards the base and pointing their weapons at her.

"You are trespassing on grounds of the Raiju clan." They told her. "Lay down your weapons and walk away or be annihilated."

Bunnie, unfazed by the threats, simply levelled her gun and pulled the trigger, mowing down the ninjas in one swift movement.

The others in the windows were about to attack her, but were stopped when Espio jumped out from behind the bush and threw multiple ninja stars at them in one throw, striking them all down.

As the group stepped through the door, an alarm went off.

Dozens of legionnaires then entered the other side of the room.

The Red Devils didn't hesitate with tearing them to pieces.

Within a few minutes, the room became a scene of flying weapons, limbs and organs, as the Red devils cut down more and more legionnaires. The Raiju clan did indeed put up a tough fight, but the pure brutality and ferocity of the Devils were no match for them.

Not too long after the fighting started, Espio finally caught sight of an all to familiar lynx, dressed in a purple gi and wearing an equally familiar conical hat.

"ALRIGHT!" Conquering Storm yelled over to sound of fighting. "WHAT IN THE NAME OF MOBIUS IS GOING ON IN..."

She was interrupted when Hershey tore another legionnaire to pieces, causing more blood to splatter everywhere, including over the grandmaster.

She smirked.

"Finally a challenge."

As she unsheathed her own katana, she charged at the group.

Espio saw her coming.

"I'm going for Conquering Storm!" He called out over the radio. "You guys keep hammering the legionnaires!"

Espio charged at the grandmaster, their swords connecting with each other.

As the two began to fight with each other, Nicole came over the radio.

"Bad news, everyone." She said. "Someone in the base has sent out a distress signal to the Death Egg. Reinforcements are on the way."

"That doesn't sound too bad". Replied Julie-Su. "A few dozen more legionnaires should be easy for us too deal with".

"Yes, except it's not that". Nicole told her. "It's team metal".

A feeling of dread washed over the team. Team Metal was the group that Mecha Sally was part of.

"Let's pick up the pace." Called out Ash. "Let's get most of these guys sorted out before team metal get here."

As the battle raged on, the legionnaires began to dwindle. The grey walls were now covered in blood. Dead legionnaires were lying all over the floor. The ones that were still alive were began to tire.

Conquering Storm, on the other hand, showed no sign of letting up, as she swiped her katana at Espio's torso. He dodged away, but not far enough to prevent the katana tearing his combat fatigues and leaving a long gash across his chest.

As the Devils rounded on the last few legionnaires, they heard jet engines on the horizon. The sound rapidly became louder.

"Shit. Team Metal is here." Ash called out to his team. "Everybody ready."

As if on cue, Metal Sonic, Mecha Sally, Metal Tails and Metal Knuckles all touched down at the entrance to the base.

**YOU ARE CURRENTLY POSING A HIGH THREAT LEVEL TO THE SAFETY OF THE EGGMAN EMIPRE**" Mecha Sally called out. "**SURRENDER OR BE DESTROYED**"

Ash rasped out three words.

"No. Fucking. Way."

He then turned to the rest of the group.

"Do what you want to the others, but we need Sally alive." He told them. "Espio, keep doing what you're doing."

With that, team metal engaged the Red Devils in combat. Metal Sonic fought with Ash, Metal Tails fought with Hershey, Metal Knuckles fought with Bunnie and Mecha Sally fought with Mighty and Julie-Su.

At this point, the swords of Espio and Conquering Storm were grinding against each other as they struggled to bring each other down.

Suddenly, the grandmaster landed a low kick on one of Espio's knees, causing him to fall to the floor. This allowed her to launch his katana out of his hands, sending it flying through the air and embedding itself in the wall.

Conquering Storm then raised her katana, ready to finish off the chameleon.

Espio then chuckled.

"So Predictable." He rasped.

With that, his invisibility powers kicked in and he vanished.

The grandmaster was left bewildered. She tried stabbing her katana at the spot where Espio was, but nothing happened.

In fact, she was so bewildered, she didn't notice Espio's katana come out of the wall.

Then, suddenly, Espio reappeared. He was holding his katana, but like it was a spear.

Espio then launched his katana at the grandmaster, sending it flying through the air before, piercing her torso and sticking her to the wall.

Conquering Storm struggled in agony to try and remove the katana, but it proved futile.

Espio then walked up to her and pulled out the katana, causing her to fall to the floor.

After a few seconds of gasping in pain, the body of the grandmaster went limp and silent.

She was dead.

With that, Espio rushed over to help his group defeat Team Metal.

To say the least, Team Metal were certainly much harder to fight than the legionnaires had been.

It was hard for all of them, but it was hardest for Mighty and Julie-Su because they couldn't destroy Sally.

As the fighting raged on, Bunnie's hammer and Metal Knuckles's fist collided in their combat.

Bunnie saw this as an opportunity to strike, so she dropped onto one knee and, using her other hand, pulled out her machine gun, pointed it at Metal Knuckles's chest and pulled the trigger. An array of bullets struck the robot in the torso, severely damaging its mechanisms.

As the robot staggered around, Bunnie readied her hammer and with one hard swing, struck the robot in the head, smashing it to pieces.

Whilst this was going on, Ash and Metal Sonic were furiously going at each other. Ash was trying to spear the robot with his blades, but each time he tried, the robot backed off, leaving only scratches on its body.

Then, Metal Sonic propelled into Ash, sending him flying into a wall.

As he slowly came to his senses, the robot grabbed him round the throat and lifted him into the air.

However, Mighty had seen that Ash was in a tight spot. So, he diverted his attention away from Sally. Then, he threw one of his hatchets at Metal Sonic, hitting it in the head and damaging its systems.

This allowed Ash to free himself from the robot's grip and, using his blades, slice Metal Sonic's head off.

Thankfully, Hershey and Espio were having a much easier time dealing with Metal Tails, due to the robot being quite small in size.

During the fight, the robot made the mistake of picking Espio as the main target.

However, as it rounded on the chameleon, this allowed Hershey to sneak up behind Metal Tails and sink both her machetes into its torso and throw the robot into the air.

Espio then leapt up and slashed the robot down the middle with one rapid movement.

With that, the rest of the group rounded on Mecha Sally, who was still holding her own.

As they battled, Ash realised what they had to do.

He landed a single karate chop and the back of her neck, damaging her power supply.

Mecha Sally then simply deactivated.

As she fell to the floor, Bunnie lifted the princess up over her shoulder.

As they left, Mighty was on the radio to Nicole.

"Nicole, this is Mighty. Mission complete. The Raiju Clan and Team Metal have been neutralised. Conquering Storm is dead. Mecha Sally has been deactivated. We're bringing her back to base. Out"

* * *

As the team sped off, they hadn't known that Eggman had seen the whole ordeal play out before his eyes, as he'd set up a visual link with Team Metal. As he stood at the helm of the Death Egg's controls, he just stared at the four blank screens, his brain struggling to comprehend what had just happened.

Six mobians had wiped out an entire Dark Egg Legion corps and four of his best fighting robots.

He looked like he'd just seen a ghost.

Finally, after a few minutes for staring in surprise, he squeezed out just three words.

"What the Fuck?!"

* * *

Once the team arrived at base, Mighty set Sally down in front of Nicole.

"So, what are we planning to do with her, then?" She asked.

"Basically," Ash said. "We need you to hack into her database. This way, she might just remember who she really is."

With that, Nicole disappeared from the computer screen.

Suddenly, hundreds upon hundreds pixelated numbers came streaming out of the computer, enveloping the unconscious robot.

Within a few minutes, Nicole had fixed any damage on her, destroyed the visual link with the Death Egg and hacked into her database.

As the numbers subsided, Nicole reappeared on the computer screen.

As the group gathered round, Mecha Sally regained consciousness and sat up.

The group readied their weapons, in case their plan backfired.

"Sally." Said Nicole. "Can you hear me?"

"**Yes. I can hear you.**" Came Mecha Sally's robotic voice. Only this time, it seemed much less harmful.

"Can you remember who you are?" Asked Nicole.

"**Yes. I remember now**" Replied the princess. "**All of it...**"


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7: Operation Boomerang**

As before, the team had the painful chore of bringing the Princess up to speed with the events that had happened between her being roboticized and now.

Needless to say, Sally was pretty angry with Eggman for making her attempt to kill her own brother.

Once Julie-Su had finished explaining things to the princess, Ash stepped up to her.

"Look. I know we've never seen eye to eye with everything." He told her. "But I think we might just be able to help each other out here."

He held out his hand.

"I'll do a deal with you. We're currently stuck in a villain sandwich between Naugus and the Dark Legion. If you help us destroy both, we'll help you become flesh and blood again."

Sally thought about this for a few moments.

She then tentatively shook Ash's hand.

"Welcome aboard, princess." He told her.

The attention of the team soon turned back to Nicole.

"Okay, you've made good progress so far." Nicole told the team. "You've managed to neutralise two separate Dark Egg Legion groups. That's 1/5th of the total legionnaire garrison. You've also killed off three grandmasters in the process. The important thing now is where you strike next."

The team pondered this for a few minutes.

"**Wait, what about Downunda?**" Asked Sally.

"You mean the battalion that Bill is in charge of?" Asked Ash.

"**Yes.**" The princess replied. "**If I remember this correctly, the downunda battalion has the largest and most active garrison of any Dark Legion corps, so taking them out would cause a serious blow.**"

"Hang on a minute" Interrupted Hershey. "I thought that Bill was an undercover freedom fighter."

"That he is." Replied Mighty.

"We'll let him live." Added Ash.

He then turned to face the rest of the team.

"Very well then. We shall attack the downunda garrison at the first opportunity we get." He told them.

He then looked at his watch.

"Half past midnight?" He said to himself, surprised.

He then looked back at his group.

"Tell you what, we have bags of time left. How about we just sort them out now."

The team all agreed.

Ash then turned to Sally.

"By the way Sally" Nicole said to her. "I've hacked into your communication link. You should now be able to communicate with myself and the rest of the team via a wireless link."

Ash then handed Sally her own red and black combat fatigues.

"Put these on." He told her. "They won't recognise you with these".

* * *

As the team blasted through Downunda, they travelled in silence once again, psyching up for the fight ahead.

Whilst the Raiju Clan may have had the best fighters in the legion, there wasn't very many of them in comparison to other legions.

The Downunda Legion battalion, whilst not being as good in combat as the Raiju clan, were at least double the size.

This time, as the team approached the base, they had immediately decided against trying a stealthy approach.

The guards at the base's entrance immediately spotted the Devils.

They pointed their guns at them and ordered them to stop, but had no effect on them.

Then, suddenly, Ash, Espio, Julie-Su, Bunnie, Hershey and Mighty all leapt off of their boards and into the air, performing an impressive double backflip before landing upright.

The boards just carried on, plowing into the legionnaires.

Sally, on the other hand kept flying, breaking through the base's main doors.

As the others entered the base, the alarm started blaring.

They soon caught up with Sally, who was knee deep in legionnaires.

"**I could use some help over here!**" She called out, cutting down legionnaires with her built in weapons.

The rest of the team readied their weapons and rushed the legionnaires.

Suddenly, more legionnaires arrived on the scene, swarming the Red Devils.

This, however did little to stem the massacre, as the devils laid waste to more and more legionnaires.

Ash even pulled an energy weapon from one of the legionnaires and used it as his own.

Then, halfway through the fight, Nicole came over the radio again.

"You'd better get things wrapped up there soon." She told them. "I've just heard that Eggman has sent his mechs to answer the distress signal."

Thankfully, it didn't take much time to neutralise the rest of the legionnaires.

By the time they'd finished, the ceilings, walls and the floor were submerged in blood. Bodies upon bodies were piled up all over the place.

Even the Devils were drenched in blood.

* * *

As the bloodshed continued, Duck "Bill" Platypus was in his office, preparing to evacuate the facility.

He was preparing in a happy yet terrified manner.

He was happy that he could finally stop pretending to be one of the bad guys and go back to freedom fighters.

However, he was terrified that the Red devils would come storming through the office door and strike his down without mercy.

The sound of the combat was gradually getting louder.

Then, a loud thump was heard at the door.

Bill was frozen in fear.

This was followed by another loud thump.

After a few more thumps, the door came crashing down and the Red Devils strode in.

At the sight of the blood soaked Devils, Bill dived behind his desk yelling "PLEASE DON'T KILL ME."

However, instead of death, this was greeted by the friendly voice of Mighty.

"You can come out now. It's okay."

Bill plucked up his courage and slowly emerged from behind his desk with his hands in the air.

"You know, this would usually be the point where we kill you and turn you into a bloody mess on the floor." Ash said to him. "However, it has come to our attention that you have secretly been working with the freedom fighters in this region to try and bring down the Dark Egg Legion. Is this true?"

Bill nodded his head.

"Yes. It is true."

"Well then, that's why we're going to let you go."

Bill relaxed.

"Although, we're going to give you one warning only. If we have to hunt you down again, we might not be so charitable. Got it?"

Bill nodded.

"Okay then. You can go now."

With that, Bill grabbed his stuff and dashed out of the base, yelling "thank you" back at them.

Ash then turned to the rest of the devils.

"Okay, now all we have to do is hack into the base's operating system and cause it to self destruct."

"**How about it do it?**" Asked Sally. "**I know the Legion's operating systems inside out.**"

The others agreed to this.

Sally then stepped up to the computer on Bills' desk and began furiously typing.

The other Devils began running out of the base.

They were only halfway towards the door when the alarm went off.

The team sprinted towards the door, soon being caught up by Sally.

They flung the door open and made for their gear.

As they clambered onto their boards, they looked behind them and noticed that Eggman's mechs were now in view.

"Don't worry about them." Ash told the others. "They'll be caught in the blast, anyway."

As the team blasted away from the base, the gates of hell opened once again and engulfed the entire base and the mechs in a massive, noisy fireball.

And the Red Devils just kept flying.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8: Compromised**

Sonic the Hedgehog had never expected to wake up to what he did.

When he went to bed that night, he'd had a fairly normal day. He'd gotten up, had breakfast, met up with tails and tried to solve who the hooded figures were.

Not much different than usual.

He'd gone to bed hoping that he'd wake up the same as he did the last time.

However, he ended up waking to the sound of Tails bursting in to his bedroom.

Again.

"What is it now, Tails?" He asked wearily as he sat up.

"The Dark Egg Legion was attacked again last night."

"Which legion corps?"

"You won't believe me when I say this, but the Downunda legion and the Raiju Clan were attacked and neutralised in just seven and a half hours."

Sonic's jaw dropped.

With that, he leapt out of bed and dashed out of knothole.

His mind was struggling to process what had happened. Two of the most dangerous Dark Egg Legion Battalions had been wiped out, one after the other, in just seven and a half hours.

This was partially confirmed when he arrived at the Raiju Clan's HQ and noticed the full extent of the damage caused.

Inside, it was a sea of blood, organs and dead bodies. The smell of decomposing flesh was incredibly overpowering, causing the blue blur to start gagging.

He then sped off to the Downunda Legion HQ, where Sonic was greeted with an even worse sight.

This time, the base was a sea of smouldering remains.

After looking at the carnage before him, Sonic rushed back to Tails.

"What on Mobius is going on?" He asked.

"I don't know." Replied the Fox. "All I know is that these guys, whoever they are, are incredibly dangerous"

"Well, Good or not, we've got to bring them in. They've got some questions to answer."

Just then, Amy rushed in.

"I've just heard a couple of interesting things on the grapevine" she told them. "Firstly, the Red-and-Black figures are known as the Red Devils. Secondly, I also heard that four of them are on the Erika Plains. They've neutralised most of that region's legion garrison and are currently attempting to chase down Diesel and the rest of the legionnaires".

"Then that's where we're heading." Declared Sonic.

* * *

Operation Piston had been going better than expected for the four Devils. Firstly, they were able to get away with a stealthy entrance into the base via the maintenance tunnel. Secondly, the legions within the base were actually quite thick, so didn't realise something was up until about 1/15th of the entire battalion had been put down. Thirdly, when the alarm was eventually raised, this actually made things easier for the Devils.

Eventually, Diesel and the surviving legionnaires had decided to evacuate the base. Diesel had blasted off on his jetbike, whilst the other legionnaires followed on anti-grav vehicles.

With that, Hershey, Sally and Bunnie had taken off after them, Hershey and Bunnie on their air boards and Sally flying after them.

The 4th devil, Mighty, had retreated to the forests surrounding the Erika Plains with a rocket launcher and sniper rifle, ready to provide support to his teammates.

He avidly watched the three girls as they slowly scythed their way through the rest of the legionnaires, his finger always ready to pull the trigger on his sniper rifle.

In fact, he was so wrapped up in the mission, he failed to notice that Sonic, Tails and Amy had snuck up behind him.

Sonic then caught Mighty off guard by grabbing him by the shoulders and spinning him round to face them.

"Alright, you. Start talking!" Sonic ordered. "Who are you, who else is a Red Devil and why are you going around killing people?"

Mighty paused.

"How about I say nothing." Replied the armadillo, rudely.

Tails then reached forwards, pulled down Mighty's mouth mask and pulled back his hood, revealing who he was.

The 3 freedom fighters had a look of utter surprise on their faces.

"No, you aren't seeing things." Said Mighty. "I am in fact a Red Devil assassin".

"Don't you thing that it's all incredibly barbaric, escpecially for you?" Replied Amy, coldly.

"Hey, sometimes you need to break eggs to make an omelette. Besides, you guys have been trying to stop Eggman for ages, yet only manage to stop him temporarily each time. Us, on the other hand, have only be a team for a few days, but we've neutralised three Dark Egg Legion corps and are in the process of neutralising another. Besides, you pacifists probably don't have the guts to do something like that." Mighty said, smugly.

Sonic was becoming agitated.

"Well good guys or not, we're still bringing you in. You've got some questions you need to answer."

"Kiss my ass, pacifist." Snapped Mighty.

Sonic had had enough.

"Alright, that does it!" He yelled.

He levelled his fist and threw a punch at Mighty's face.

Mighty, however, anticipated it and caught Sonic's fist. He then threw his own punch at the side of Sonic's head, striking his temple and rendering him unconscious.

As Sonic fell to the floor, Amy stepped up to Mighty, produced her hammer, raised it above her head and started to bring in down on Mighty.

Mighty anticipated this as well, as he caught the hammer by it's hilt and began to push it back up.

Amy brought one of her hands off the hammer and punched Mighty in the chest to try and put him off, but this seemed to do nothing.

Mighty then produced one of his hatchets, reached round Amy and, using the blunt hilt, gave the female hedgehog an almighty whack to the back of the knees.

As she keeled over, yelling in pain, Tails was the only one left.

He launched a flying head kick at Mighty, but he easily dodged it.

Mighty then landed three hard punches on Tails's crotch.

As Tails fell to the ground, yelling in agony, Mighty grabbed his stuff, pulled up his disguise and made a run for it.

He was soon on the radio.

"Nicole, Sally, Hershey, Bunnie, this is Mighty. I've been compromised. I repeat, I have been compromised. Sonic, Tails and Amy are now aware that I'm a Red Devil. I've managed to shake them off and I'm now proceeding to a new overwatch location, over."

"Mighty, this is Nicole. Do they know about the rest of us?"

"Negative. Just me."

"Mighty, this is Hershey. We're going to need some support in a moment. When are you going to be ready?"

"In just a few moments. I've just arrived at the second location."

As Mighty got into position in the canopy of a tree, Diesel and the remaining legionnaires came flying through the plains and towards the forest, with Hershey, Bunnie and Sally in hot pursuit.

Mighty readied his missile launcher and fired it, taking out two hover anti-grav transports with at least 13 legionnaires.

Mighty then readied his sniper rifle.

As the legion blasted into the forest, Mighty rapidly pulled the trigger multiple times, unloading the magazine and releasing 10 bullets.

Most of them hit the remaining legionnaires.

One of them hit the fuel tank on Diesel's jetbike.

As the bike exploded, Diesel was sent flying through the air, before crashing head first into a tree.

As Diesel fell to the ground, barely alive, Hershey leapt off her air board and speared Diesel in the face with her machete, killing him instantly.

"Nicole, this is Hershey." She said over the radio. "The Erika Plains Legion has been neutralised. Diesel had been eliminated. Returning to base. Out."

The others then caught up with her.

"Lousy freedom fighters" Mighty muttered to himself. "I shouldn't have let them get the drop on me."

"Don't worry about it." Bunnie told him.

"Yeah. The best thing you can do now is to lie low until it all blows over." Added Sally.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9: Wrath of the Mongoose**

As the evening rolled in, Ash, Julie-Su and Espio arrived at the base.

They were greeted by Nicole, Hershey, Bunnie, Sally and Mighty.

They then debriefed then on Operation Piston.

"The mission went almost perfectly ." Hershey told them. "The entire Erika Plains Legion has been wiped out. Diesel has also been eliminated. In total, that's about 50,000+ KIA's on that one mission."

"That's over 1,000,000 total KIA's." Nicole added.

Ash grinned.

"Excellent." He said, happily. "Great job so far people. We're rapidly closing up on our objective."

Mighty then stepped up to him.

"Well, I did run into a small problem on the last mission, though."

Ash frowned.

"What sort of small problem?"

"Basically, once the rest of the legion had set off on their vehicles, with the girls in hot pursuit, I retreated to a safe distance with a missile launcher and sniper rifle to provide support to them."

"So what went wrong?"

"Well, I was so focussed on the mission at hand, I failed to notice Sonic, Tails and Amy sneak up on me. To make a long story short, they now know that I'm a Red Devil."

"Are they aware of anyone else?"

"No. Just me."

"Oh. Well, that's alright then." As told him.

"Seriously?" Asked Mighty, surprised.

"Yeah. I knew it would only be a matter of time until the freedom fighters found out the identity of one of us. To be honest, I'm surprised it took them that long. But anyway, don't worry about it. Just lie low until the whole thing blows over."

The group then gathered around Nicole's monitor.

"Okay. Now, which legion base do we strike at next?" He asked. "Personally, I'm suggesting we attack the.."

"Oh no." Said Nicole in a worried tone of voice.

"What's wrong?" Asked Espio.

"Eggman is sending a video transmission out to the world." The AI replied.

"Bring it up on the screen please." Said Ash.

"Okay. Quick word of warning, you won't like it much." She replied.

As Nicole disappeared from the screen, the message appeared.

Doctor Eggman was on screen, broadcasting from within the Death Egg.

"Hello, people of Mobius." He said. "There's no need to introduce myself because you should already know who I am. Anyway, it has come to my attention that a group of freedom fighter rejects known as the Red Devils have been rampaging around the planet and killing off my Legion. Well, to them I say this: How would you like a taste of your own medicine?"

He stepped off screen to show some sort of operating table

To the team's horror, Mina Mongoose was strapped to it, struggling to break free.

She had a terrified look on her face and her cheeks were streaked with tears.

"So, Red Devils, I will issue an ultimatum for you." Said Eggman "Surrender to me before midnight, or else...well...You get the idea. Bye!"

The transmission ended.

At this point, the Devils all looked visibly worried.

Ash, however, didn't look worried at all.

He was, however, seething with rage.

In fact, he was so angry, he was physically shaking.

He took a deep breath and spoke.

"Nicole, trace that signal."

"Roger that." replied the AI.

This took a few seconds.

"Got it. He's at the farthest point north west of the Downunda Region, heading out over the sea."

Ash then pulled up his disguise and headed towards the door.

"Ash, what are you doing?" Asked Julie-Su.

"You want to know what I'm doing?!" Ash snapped. "I'll tell you what I'm doing. I'm rescuing her. I'm going to rescue Mina Mongoose from within the death egg. THEN, I'M GOING TO KILL EGGMAN. AND THEN, JUST FOR GOOD MEASURE, I'M GOING TO WIPE THAT PIECE OF SHIT FORTRESS OUT OF THE SKY!"

"But Ash, that's suicidal!" Said Bunnie. "There's no way you'll make it out in one piece."

"Two things then." Replied Ash. "Firstly, I don't care if you lot plan on joining me. Finally..."

He gave the team a salute.

"See you in hell."

With that, he sprinted out, leapt onto his extreme gear and blasted off in search of the death egg.

* * *

Needless to say, Ash very quickly came across the Death Egg.

Unfortunately, it had already hovered out to sea.

As he pondered how he would reach it, he noticed a cliff to his right.

It looked almost like a ramp.

Ash then realised what he had to do.

He then flew along the shoreline, up the cliff and off the edge at rapid speed, leaping off his board in the process.

As he flew through the air towards the fortress, he unsheathed his blades.

He then pierced the hull of the Death Egg with his blades and began to climb up the sides until he came across a ventilation hatch.

As he slashed it open and clambered inside, he came across a patrol of Eggman's Mechs.

As they tried to capture him, Ash just span round and easily neutralised the mechs.

Suddenly, an alarm sounded.

"I'd better find Mina fast." Ash thought to himself.

He then sprinted through the flying fortress in search of his girlfriend.

Fortunately for him, it didn't take too long.

As he mercilessly cut down mech after mech, he rounded a corner, noticing a large doorway at the end of a corridor.

"Knowing Eggman..." He thought to himself. "That's where he and Mina are."

With that, Ash sprinted down the corridor and crashed through the door.

His suspicions were right. In the middle of the room, Mina Mongoose was still strapped to the operating table. Doctor Eggman was standing over her, readying all sorts of diabolical machinery.

"Ah, your here." He said, smugly. "Although, lord knows why you decided to show up on your own, Red Devil. To be honest, I'm surprised you bothered to show up at all. Mina is probably worthless to your team."

"Mina isn't worthless to anyone." Ash replied. " She is a source of hope and inspiration for many mobians on this planet. She worth more to me in particular..."

Ash then down his mouth cover and pulled back his hood.

"...because she's my girlfriend".

Mina had a look of utter shock and confusion on her face.

"You know Eggy, there's a very good reason I started the Red Devils." Ash explained. "I had sat on the sidelines for years and watched as assholes like yourself commit heinous crimes on countless innocent Mobians. I knew that it would only be a matter of time that you committed such acts on the one that was closest to me. I then realised what I had to do. I looked at the destruction you had caused and I decreed one thing: No more. I formed the Red Devils because Mina Mongoose is the best damn thing that had ever happened to me and I want to make sure that assholes like yourself don't even think about laying a single finger on her. And you, good doctor..."

He then pulled out his energy weapon and aimed it at Eggman.

"...Just crossed the line. Now here's what I'm going to do. What I'm going to do, is that I'm going to kill you. Then, whilst you're bleeding out, I'm going to release my girlfriend. Finally, I'm going to set this whole fortress into self-destruct mode and I'm going to leave with Mina."

"I'd think twice about that." Said Eggman as he pressed a button on a nearby panel.

Suddenly, a gigantic robotic behemoth, shaped to look like Sonic appeared from out of the floor.

"Oh puh-lease" Ash said.

Much to the surprise of Mina, Ash then sprinted towards the robot and leapt up towards his head.

The robot tried to swat Ash out of the air, but the mongoose simply tore the robot's claws apart with his blades.

Then, with one quick movement, Ash then ripped through the robot's head, taking out its circuitry.

The robot then came crashing to the ground.

Ash then landed on top of it.

"God-damn, these things are shit." He said, chuckling to himself.

"BEHIND YOU!" Yelled out Mina.

Ash spun round to see Eggman was about to attack him.

He simply levelled his gun and shot Eggman in his legs.

As Eggman fell to the ground, shrieking in pain, Ash ran over to the control panel and after working out which button to push, managed to find the button which released Mina from the operating table.

As Mina clambered off the table, Ash ran over and gripped in a tight hug.

"Thank god you're alright."

Suddenly, a large group of mechs swarmed through the door.

Ash then broke the hug, levelled his gun and began rapidly mowing them down.

Ash then dashed over to another panel and began madly tapping away on keys.

Thankfully, it didn't take too long for a message to appear on screen and another alarm to sound.

"**SELF DESTRUCTION WILL OCCUR IN 3 MINUTES**".

As Ash began sprinting towards the exit, he beckoned for Mina to follow.

"Follow me! I know a way out!" He called to Mina.

As the duo made their way through the corridors, they were constantly swarmed by mechs.

This, however, failed to stop them as Ash continued to mow them down.

**1 Minute**

They eventually arrived to the air vent Ash had used to enter the fortress.

"Quick! Go through it! I'll cover you!" Called Ash as he continued mowing down mechs.

Mina then clambered through the hole and began falling into the ocean.

As Ash backed himself up towards the hole, he sheathed his blades and then backflipped out of the hole and began to dive towards the ocean below.

**15 Seconds**

Ash eventually caught up with Mina mid-fall.

They then grabbed hold of each other.

"Brace yourself!" He told her.

They then splashed down hard into the sea.

**5 seconds**

Aboard the ship, Eggman was lying in the middle of the room, still bleeding out.

With his last few ounces of strength, the doctor managed to scream out four words.

"_I_"

**4**

"_HATE_"

**3**

"_THAT_"

**2**

"_MONGOOSE__!_"

**1**

It was at this point where the once feared Eggman Empire exploded into millions of tiny pieces, literally and metaphorically, and the self-destruct mechanism turned the once powerful fortress into a smouldering pile of junk, falling towards the ocean.

It was at this point that the Mina and Ash dragged themselves out of the ocean and collapsed, exhausted and soaked through, next to each other.

Ash then tentatively reached up to his radio.

"Team, this is Ash. Mina is safe. Eggman has been defeated. The Death Egg has been destroyed."

This news was greeted by a loud cheer from his group.

"YES!" Yelled Nicole, elated. "Great job, Ash. We'll be waiting for you at the base to celebrate. Nicole out."

As the transmission ended, Mina shuffled over to Ash.

"You know, back on the death egg, when you where telling Eggman all those things, did you mean it?" She asked.

"Yes. I meant every word I said." Ash said softly, cupping her beautiful face with his hands. "To me, you're the best thing that has ever happened to me and I don't want to lose you."

A tear of happiness rolled down both their faces.

After a few seconds of getting lost in each other's eyes, the two lovers then pressed their lips together in a long and passionate French kiss as Ash gently stroked Mina's long, flowing purple hair whilst Mina gently stroked Ash's short, black hair."

After what felt like an eternity to them, they finally broke the kiss to catch their breaths.

"I love you." They both whispered to each other.

* * *

The duo eventually made it back to the hideout, where they were greeted with many cheers and congratulations from the team.

Ash then introduced Mina to the other Devils and finally to Nicole.

Needless to say, Mina was pretty surprised to see Nicole and Hershey, but was still very happy to see them.

Ash then called for the team to be quiet.

"Fellow Devils" He called out. "Since the very beginning, I knew this group was something special. Over the past week, You've managed to prove that. To be perfectly honest, I doubt I could've got this done on my own, so thank you for the support."

This was followed by loud cheering.

"We haven't finished yet. In fact, we've only just reached the half way point. However, today, I learnt something. WE CAN DO ANYTHING. WE ARE UNSTOPPABLE!"

This was followed by even more cheering.

* * *

Once the celebrations were over, the team went their separate ways, with Sally, Bunnie, Hershey and Mighty staying at the base.

Ash, carrying Mina Mongoose in his arms bridal style, made his way back to his house.

As he made it back into his house, Ash carried Mina up to his bedroom, where he slipped Mina under his bed covers and slipped in next to her.

"You alright, Babe?" Ash whispered to her.

"I'm fine, thanks" She replied. "Although, my body is feeling a bit stiff."

"Need a massage?"

"Thanks. That would be great."

**(A/N: The rest of this chapter is a lemon).**

As Ash pulled down the bed covers, Mina rolled over,pulled her top off and unstrapped her bra, exposing her bare back.

Ash then sat up and began to gently massage the area around the top of her spine.

Almost instantly, Mina began to feel more relaxed.

As Ash slowly began to move down her back, Mina slowly became more relaxed, even letting out a few quiet moans of pleasure.

Ash then started massaging the back of her legs, starting close to Mina's ankles.

Once he began to slide further up Mina's legs, Mina's moans of pleasure began to slowly become louder.

He hesitated once he reached Mina's skirt.

"Go ahead." Mina whispered to him.

With that, Ash then gently lowered her skirt and panties and began to gently massage her behind.

"Oh God Ash" She moaned.

Suddenly, Mina flipped over and grabbed Ash's hands.

"You missed a spot" she whispered in his ear, seductively.

Ash grinned. He knew what Mina was talking about.

He then proceeded to place one of his hands on Mina's flower and begin to gently rub it, causing her to shiver in pleasure.

"AH! Yes! Right there!" She moaned.

Suddenly, Mina flipped over onto her back, threw both her arms round Ash's head, pulled him in and locked lips with him.

As their lips moved passionately in time with each other, Mina reached down and tugged at Ash's shirt, which he proceeded to pull off.

As they continued their intimate session, Mina's hands began to crawl down her boyfriend's body before reaching into his underwear and taking hold of his erect, throbbing manhood.

At this point, Mina pulled down the rest of Ash's clothes, exposing his member.

She then laid on her back again as Ash crawled on top of her and positioned the head of his member at the entrance of his girlfriend's drenched womanhood.

As he entered Mina's flower, the two lovers moaned and gasped in pleasure.

They then proceeded to lock lips once again.

As their hips moved in time with each other, their tongues engaged in a passionate wrestling match, serving only to increase the amount of passion, which was already sky high.

As time flew by, their lovemaking became more and more passionate until they reached their climax.

It was at this moment that orgasm upon orgasm tore through the bodies of the two lovers, causing them to scream out in pleasure.

Once the pleasure had subsided, Ash collapsed onto the bed next to Mina, panting and sweating.

The two lovers then pulled up the bed sheets and curled up next to one another.

They needed their rest.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10: Devilmania**

As the morning arrived, light began to shine through the gaps in Ash's curtains, illuminating the dark bedroom and causing the two lovers to stir.

"Good morning babe" Ash whispered to Mina as he gave her a small peck on the cheek. "Sleep well?"

"Like a log" she replied happily. "Thank you".

The two of them soon got up, got dressed and were soon sitting on Ash's sofa, eating breakfast.

As they did so, Ash turned on the TV.

A young female reporter was presenting the news.

"Today's top story." She said.

The image on the screen changed to that of the remains of the Death Egg.

"Millions of Mobians around the world are currently rejoicing at the news that the threat of the infamous Doctor Eggman has finally come to an end after his fortress, the death egg, was found as a smouldering wreck after it apparently exploded, killing him in the process. A few hours before the death Egg exploded, he released a message to the mobian public, particularly the assassin collective known as the Red Devils, ordering them to surrender. If they didn't, then he would've roboticised famous Singer/songwriter Mina Mongoose. It is presumed that Mina managed to survive. It is still uncertain as to who or what caused the Death egg to explode, but many people believe that the Red Devils themselves may have something to do with this".

Rotor Walrus then appeared on screen.

"To me, it is blatantly obvious that the Red Devils are behind Eggman's death. Only they would have the ability to pull off such an audacious and sudden attack on Eggman".

"So, do you have any idea who the Red devils might be?" Asked the reporter.

"Well, we did receive confirmation yesterday to one of them was in fact Mighty the Armadillo. But asides of that, I have no idea. But whoever they are, they've done us all a huge favour". Rotor replied.

The image then changed to many Mobians celebrating on the streets of Mobotropolis.

Some of them were even dressed in homemade Red Devil outfits.

"It appears that Rotor isn't the only one who thinks this, as thousands of Mobians took to the streets of Mobotropolis to celebrate just a few hours ago. Many people are now considering the Red Devils as the new heroes of Mobius. Some people are even saying that the world is now awash with what people call Devilmania".

"It's about time someone took out that monster". Said one passer-by.

"These guys...These guys are just fantastic". Said another.

"Freedom Fighters, take note. This is how you get the job done". Said a third.

"Whilst we know very few things about the Red Devils," Said the Reporter "we can be sure of two things. These guys are definitely friendly and they might allow the world to finally know peace".

Ash just couldn't help grinning.

"You did good, babe". Mina said to him, happily kissing him on the cheek.

"Yeah. It's all good". Replied Ash, giving his girlfriend a high five.

Their attention then returned to the news.

The female newsreader was facing away from the camera, listening to her ear piece.

She then went back to looking at the camera.

"This just in!" She said to the camera. "We've just received reports that the Destructix have launched an attack within Downtown Mobotropolis. It has been confirmed that Scourge the Hedgehog is indeed leading them.

The image on the screen then changed to a bird's eye view of downtown Mobotropolis.

The Destructix were rampaging through the city, raising hell left, right and centre.

Ash and Mina spent a few moments staring at the TV.

Suddenly, Ash leapt off the sofa and disappeared into his bedroom.

When he reappeared, he was pulling on his combat fatigues, attaching his communicator onto his head and carrying his air board.

"I hate to leave you like this Mina" Ash told her "but Mobotropolis needs my help".

"Do what you have to do, just be careful" Mina replied, getting off the couch and giving him another kiss.

"Good luck".

Ash then dashed out the front door, leapt on his board and flew off towards the city.

"Team, this is Ash" he called over his communicator. "Do you read?"

"Loud and clear" replied Espio.

"I assume that you're heading into Mobotropolis to fight the destructix" Said Mighty

"Yes. I'm on the way there. Where are you?" Asked Ash

"We're behind you" Julie-Su told him, chuckling.

As Ash turned around to look, he noticed that the rest of the team were indeed flying behind him.

"Alright then. Let's do this". Ash told his team as they reached the outskirts of the city.

* * *

As the team arrived in Downtown Mobotropolis, they were greeted by a trail of carnage and thousands of screaming Mobians, running in the opposite direction.

Their screams of fear turned into cheers when they noticed that the Red Devils were heading past.

As they rounded a corner, they came across the Destructix, laying waste to everything in their path.

The six mercenaries were then greeted with a scream of "HEY!"

As the group turned around, they noticed the Red Devils were standing before them.

"Well, it's about time someone tried to stop us" said Fiona.

Their leader, Scourge the Hedgehog took a few seconds to eye them up.

"I take it from the news on this cesspool of a planet that you lot are the Red Devils, the supposed "heroes of Mobius". Am I right?" he asked.

"**Yeah**. **Pretty much**." Replied Sally.

Scourge laughed.

"Hah!" He yelled, chuckling. "Puh-lease. You lot don't even look like you could even handle fighting two groups of swatbots, let alone us. Where's the real challenge? Where's Sonic?"

"HE'S RIGHT HERE!" Yelled a voice.

Sure enough, Sonic, Tails and Amy arrived at the opposite end of the street.

"There you are, blue." Scourge called out to him. "I was beginning to think you wouldn't show up".

"Now, usually, this would be the point where I ask how you lot managed to get out of the Zone Jail, but it won't really matter once we send you lot back again".

"Oh, really?" Asked Scourge sarcastically.

"Yes really". Replied Amy. "And that's not all. Once you guys have been dealt with, we're sending those guys with you" she said, pointing at the Red Devils.

"Us? Please. You guys are just jealous that we were the ones that took down the Dark Egg Legion." Replied Hershey.

"Can we just stop talking and start bashing each other's faces in already?" Asked Scourge, agitated.

"Gladly." Sonic replied before he, Tails and Amy rushed the Destructix, Sonic delivering a hard uppercut to Scourge's jaw.

"Shall we?" Asked Mighty.

"We shall" replied Ash.

The team readied their weapons.

"ATTACK!" Screamed Ash as he and the rest of the Devils charged the two groups.

Needless to say, fighting the Destructix and the Knothole Freedom Fighters was notably more difficult than fighting off team metal, but the Devils still did a good job of holding their own.

Things got better for them when Bunnie, who had been locked in a duel with the fast moving Lightning Lynx struck him in the head with her war hammer after dodging a flying head kick from him, killing him instantly and completely obliterating most of his skull.

Then Sally, who had been engaged in an air battle with Predator Hawk, managed to grab the bird by his throat and threw him at the ground, giving him a few blasts with her built in weapons on the way down, killing him instantly.

Meanwhile, Julie-Su and Hershey were battling against the hulking Sergeant Simian.

Suddenly, Simian threw a massive punch in the direction of Julie-Su . This, however, allowed Hershey to dodge past and spear his torso with both her machetes. Julie then ran up, jumped on Hershey's shoulders and cleaved off Simian's head with one quick swipe with her axe.

Finally, Espio managed to swiftly dice the body of flying frog in under 15 seconds.

As the rest of the Devils circled in on the others, Scourge and Fiona (who had been holding their own against Mighty, Ash and the freedom fighters) saw that their hopes of defeating these guys were almost impossible.

"Fuck this shit!" Scourge yelled before grabbing Fiona's wrist and blasting down the road.

"Get back here!" Sonic yelled, blasting after them.

This left just Tails and Amy in a stand off against the 7 Red Devils.

"Well, it's all or nothing." Tails told Amy.

However, they'd failed to notice Ash sneaking up behind them.

When they did eventually notice him, he'd already delivered karate chops to the back of their necks and knocked them out.

"God I love doing that" Ash said, elated.

The Devils then headed back to their boards.

"Good job, team" Ash told them. "Don't worry about the dead bodies. We'll let the freedom fighters clean them up. As for Tails and Amy, they'll come around soon enough".

"What about Scourge and Fiona?" asked Bunnie

"Don't worry about them. They'll resurface soon enough". Replied Ash.

The team then hopped on their boards and high tailed out of their.

* * *

Scourge and Fiona, now the sole survivors of the Destructix came to a halt in the forest outside Knothole after shaking Sonic off their tail.

"The fuck's happened since we were here last?" Asked Fiona.

"Who cares?" Scourge sneered. "Now I finally have a challenge in taking this backwater planet".

Fiona couldn't believe Scourge's attitude.

"Seriously?!" She asked, agitated. "Most of our team has been killed by these new assassins. It's just us two. We might not even make it out of this thing alive and THIS is your attitude?!"

"So? Those four losers couldn't keep up. All that matters to me is taking Sonic down."

"You're so unbelievable." Fiona muttered.

"We'd best be moving." Scourge said, walking off into the forest. "Come on."

As the duo wandered, Fiona was thinking about what had happened in Mobotropolis.

"Whoever they were, those guys were tough" she thought to herself.

She then thought about her deceased teammates and what Scourge had said.

"Stupid twat. God knows why I still hang around with him. Sometimes I just want to smash his skull in." She thought.

Suddenly, a devious idea came to her.

"No. I couldn't. Not that. I mean, they'd kill me if I did. Besides the guy may be a dick, but at least he cares about me. Right?" She thought.

"No. He probably just cares about himself, the bastard. He can burn in hell for all I care".

Fiona then came to a conclusion.

"Very well..." She thought.

At that moment, Scourge was so wrapped up in himself that he failed to notice Fiona sneaking into the undergrowth.

* * *

For Mighty the Armadillo, the rest of the day had been great.

When he had arrived at his house after defeating the Destructix, he had discovered that there was a small group of his new fans waiting for him on his front lawn.

Most people would've preferred to be left alone to be themselves and do their own thing in piece.

Mighty, however, had dreamed about being famous, so was more than happy to say hi to his fans and sign his autograph.

As he was about to step into his house, one last fan approached him.

"So who else is in the Red Devils?" They'd asked, excitedly.

Mighty had just simply smiled and said "now that would be telling".

Now, he was sitting on his couch at home, watching TV and eating snacks.

However, his afternoon of enjoyment was interrupted by a loud knock at the door.

He sighed, before getting up off the couch to answer the front door.

He then realised something.

The knocking was coming from the back door.

This sent of a few alarms inside his head.

Nobody ever knocked on his back door before.

Readying one of his hatchets, he crept round to his back door and opened it a crack.

He couldn't believe what he was seeing.

Fiona Fox was standing on his back doorstep.

He then flung the door open and pointed the sharp bit of his axe at her head, mere centimetres away from it.

"Hello to you too" Fiona said sarcastically.

"You know you've got a lot of guts coming back here" rasped Mighty. "In fact, give me one good reason why I shouldn't just splatter your brains all over the walls right now."

"Well, lets just say that you and I are both looking for the same thing at the moment" She replied.

"What might that be?"

"Scourge. Dead!"

Mighty raised an eyebrow.

"Well then, why are you even here? Surely you could kill him by yourself".

"Except I can't because he's too powerful."

Then Mighty realised why Fiona was here.

"Are you by any chance here because you want to join the team?"

"Exactly. I know the team probably offer me forgiveness, but that's not what I'm looking for. I'm looking for redemption".

After pondering for a few moments, Mighty disappeared inside.

He reappeared carrying his phone.

He then dialled in some numbers and held it up to his ear.

"Hello?" Answered Ash.

"Ash. It's Mighty". Replied Mighty.

"What's up?" Asked Ash.

"Nothing much." Replied Mighty. "It's just that you won't believe who's standing on my back doorstep..."


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11: Hedgehog Hunting**

For the few hours after she went to the Red Devils, Fiona had to nervously wait to find out her fate.

She new that she had to convincingly present her case to them, or else it would be the end of her.

She sat on a stool in the middle of the base, whilst Mighty was watching over her.

Sure enough, the sound of air boards pulling up outside the base was heard.

The remaining devils then filed into the base and surrounded Fiona, their disguises up and their weapons drawn.

"Okay, I'm just going to make this plain and simple" Ash said coldly. "You are going to present your case to us. If you're telling the truth and we like what we hear, we'll let you join us. If not...you get the idea".

Fiona sighed.

"Very well then. First off, when the team and I arrived back in this world, we were expecting to have an even match against the Freedom Fighters. But what we got was crushing defeat from you lot. Before all this, I would've fought alongside Scourge until the very end because I viewed him as a hard ass fighter. Now I find that he's just a spineless, self centred bastard".

Ash cocked an eyebrow.

"So why did you come to us?" He asked.

"Mainly because I feel that its finally time for Scourge to receive his comeuppance, but also because I want to actually do something right and make up for what I did to this world". Fiona replied

"You know, we probably won't be offering you forgiveness any time soon". Interjected Julie-Su.

"I'm not looking for forgiveness" Replied Fiona. "I'm looking for redemption".

The Devils thought about their decision for a few moments.

"So what do we think?" Asked Ash.

Fiona had beads of sweat dripping rapidly down her forehead.

The Devils all gave a thumbs up.

Ash then held his hand out to Fiona.

"Good news. We like what we hear. You in or what?"

Without hesitation, Fiona got out of the chair and shook Ash's hand.

"Welcome to the Red devils, Fiona". Ash told her.

They broke the hand shake.

"Right, you're going to need to get suited up." He told her, motioning to a doorway. "If you go through there, you'll find your equipment. You can also choose your own weapon".

With that, Fiona jogged through the doorway.

She soon re-emerged wearing her own combat fatigues and carrying a reaper over her shoulder.

The team then gathered around Nicole, where they introduced themselves.

"Right. Let's get down to business". Ash told them once the formalities had been exchanged. "At the moment, Naugus still remains our prime target. There's no chance the rest of the Dark Egg Legion will attack now that Eggman has been defeated, so we can forget about them. Right now, however, we need to focus on killing Scourge".

"Last time I saw him, he was in the forest just outside Knothole" Fiona told them.

"Well then, let's go!" Hershey told them.

The 8 Red Devils then bolted out of the base.

* * *

As the team arrived in the forest, they were on high alert. They knew Scourge was dangerous.

They decided to split into four pairs. Ash and Fiona, Mighty and Hershey, Espio and Julie-Su and Bunnie and Sally.

As they crept through the forest, they were greeted by a whooshing noise not far away.

"That sounds like him." Fiona told them.

"Everyone proceed with caution". Ash added.

They also began to hear the faint sound of footsteps.

They grew louder and louder.

"Weapons ready" Ash told Fiona.

As they readied their weapons, a flash of green flew past them, followed by a flash of blue.

"Well...piss" remarked Hershey.

"Everyone head after them." Ash told them as he and Fiona took off after them. "Sonic can live, but Scourge must die".

The Devils eventually arrived in a forest clearing.

Before them, Sonic and Scourge were locked in fast paced mortal combat, each determined to take the other down.

Scourge then noticed that the Devils had arrived.

"Well well. Look what Chaos dragged in". He said cockily.

Sonic then turned to face the Devils.

"Let me guess. You're here to kill Scourge. Am I right?" He asked.

"Yeah. Pretty much." Replied Bunnie.

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that". Sonic replied.

"Really? Would that be because we're apparently "Breaking Freedom Fighter code", as it were?" Asked Ash sarcastically. "Quite frankly, none of us give a flying fuck. In fact, it's the Freedom Fighters code that caused the Red Devils to become a reality. You and that lot didn't have enough backbone to have blood on your hands.

Sonic tried to interject.

"Oh don't even think about giving us some long, drawn out speech with the whole "We're no better than Eggman" bullshit. We've received those words before."

"Now, here's how things are going to roll." Added Julie-Su.

She pointed at Sonic.

"Consider yourself lucky that we're allowing you to walk away from this alive".

Fiona then pointed at Scourge.

"You, on the other hand, will certainly not be so lucky, you spiky haired cunt". She spat.

Scourge reeled from that comment.

"Shall we?" Asked Ash.

"We shall." Replied his teammates.

With that, they readied their weapons and charged the two hedgehogs.

Needless to say, the two hedgehogs proved a tough challenge to both themselves and the Devils.

But the Devils valiantly fought on, soon splitting the two hedgehogs apart. Ash, Espio, Julie-Su and Fiona took on Scourge, whilst Sally, Hershey, Mighty and Bunnie took on Sonic.

"You know, you guys probably don't have a hope in hell of defeating Naugus". Scourge told them.

"That's where you're wrong". Replied Ash. "In fact, judging by the way we're going, we could have this whole thing wrapped up by about..."

He stopped and looked at his watch.

"...Tonight." He finished before charging at Scourge again.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Devils were locked in combat with Sonic, with neither side showing signs of letting up.

In turn, each of the devils tried to take down Sonic, but to no avail each time.

However, as Sally attempted again, Sonic swiftly reached up and grabbed hold of her mouth cover and her hood, tearing them off.

His jaw dropped.

"S-S-Sally?!" He asked, stepping back in horror.

"**Hey Sonic**" she replied with a guilty tone in her voice.

Sonic was struggling to comprehend what he was seeing.

Princess Sally Acorn, his girlfriend and leader of the Freedom Fighters was standing before him, still roboticized and working with a clan of deadly assassins.

Just then, however, Mighty gave him an almighty whack to the back of the head with the blunt part of his axe knocking him out instantly.

The four Devils then joined their teammates in the combat with Scourge.

The green hedgehog had seen all and he was shocked too.

"You're kidding, right?" he asked.

Fortunately, in this state of shock, Scourge began to slowly drop his guard.

He was greeted by a rock hard punch to the guts from Julie-Su

Espio followed this up with a swing from his katana, but Scourge backed away, leaving a long gash down his chest.

Mighty then greeted him with a hard kick to the crotch.

Finally, Fiona finished him off with a blow from her reaper, slicing his head clean off.

As Scourge fell to the floor, bleeding out, the Devils gathered round.

"This is just so embarrassing". Sally told them. "My boyfriend now knows that I'm with you guys".

"Don't worry about it. This thing will be over before you know it". Hershey reassured here.

"Anyway, good job Devils. That's one more target neutralised. Now all that's left is too neutralise Naugus". Ash told them.

"By the way, how exactly are we going to do that?" Asked Mighty.

Ash pondered for a few moments.

"I'm not sure at the moment, but I'm working on it". He told them.

However, as the team made their way back to base, they could be sure of one thing.

They'd sure as hell get this thing wrapped up before tomorrow.

Even if it killed them...


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12: Operation Jackpot**

As the team returned to the base, there was a sense of nervousness in the air.

They knew that the end of their campaign was now in sight.

However, there was one obstacle left to overcome.

Ixis Naugus.

Out of all their adversaries, the Devils knew that Naugus would prove the most challenging, with his magic powers being more than enough to match Sonic.

They knew they needed something immensely powerful just to even give them a chance of defeating them.

They soon found themselves looking over all possible options.

"Now, the way I see it" Hershey told them "the seven chaos emeralds are our best bet at taking Naugus down".

"Yes, but we don't know where they are". Replied Espio.

"**I'm not even going to recommend throwing ourselves at him because that would be just plain suicidal****.**" Added Sally.

The team pondered in silence for a few moments.

"Wait a minute!" Fiona called out. "What about the anarchy Beryl?"

"The what?" Asked Ash.

"Their the other world's version of the Chaos Emeralds" Fiona explained. "The main difference is that they're more powerful, much longer lasting and there's more of them."

"You know where they are?" Asked Bunnie.

"There should still be a stash under the throne in the palace".

The team thought about this for a moment.

"To be honest, I can't think of a better idea, so lets go with that". Ash told them.

"You should still be able to use the dimensional portal, back at the old Freedom Fighter HQ". Nicole told them.

The team then headed off, back towards Knothole.

* * *

Thankfully, it didn't take them too long to find the dimensional gate.

It did, however, take them longer than they wanted to boot the system up.

"It's not my fault I keep running into firewalls". Ash told them.

Eventually, they managed to boot up the dimensional gate and the team soon found themselves stepping through the portal.

As the portal behind them disappeared, they took a minute to survey their surroundings.

They were in a forest surrounding the courtyard of a giant castle.

"Follow me" Fiona told them. "I know this place inside out. We'd best stay low. This place is probably crawling with guards."

"Don't bother with disguises" Ash told the team. "We probably won't be heading back to this world".

As the team began to wander round the outskirts of the castle, Fiona began to climb up one of the castle walls.

"If we blow our cover, the entire army in this world would be all over us" She told them. "It would be best if we entered the castle at a different point higher up".

The team began to slowly scale the wall.

Much higher up, they arrived at an open window.

"We'd better split up" Ash told them. "We'll cover more ground that way".

As Ash clambered through the open window, the other Devils clambered round, looking for more ways in.

Ash then discovered that he had wandered into a male cubicle, as it was lined by sinks and mirrors on one side and urinals and cubicles on the other.

Just then, however, one of the cubicle doors began to open.

In a split second, Ash dived into the nearest cubicle as one of the castle guards stepped out of his cubicle, went over to the sink and began to wash his hands.

He didn't notice that Ash was sneaking up behind him.

When he did eventually turn around and notice, Ash took his head off with one quick swipe.

Ash then placed the dead guard's body in the cubicle and continued on his way.

* * *

Higher up the building, Mighty crawled into another window.

This time, however, Mighty had crawled into what appeared to be a master bedroom of sort, complete with a giant king sized bed.

Just then, as the Armadillo made his first moves to leave, he heard the sound of running water.

As he peeked through the door opposite the bed, he saw a sight he could've gone without seeing.

Patch D'Coolette was having a shower.

Mighty moved away from the door and activated his radio.

"Guys, bad news. I've just found Patch D'Coolette having a shower. I'm inclined to believe that the Suppression Squad is still dominant in this universe" He whispered.

"Shit. I forgot about them" Fiona told them.

"Just stick to the plan" Ash replied. "Kill them off if you have to".

As Ash finished, the shower stopped.

This was then followed by the sound of footsteps heading towards the door.

Mighty readied one of his hatchets.

As the door opened and Patch walked out, Mighty gave an almighty swing with his hatchet, taking Patch's head clean off.

Mighty then dumped Patch's body in the shower, exited the bedroom and continued on his way.

* * *

Deeper within the castle, Ash had been slowly making progress.

Whilst the enemy soldiers hadn't been looking, he'd been quietly crawling along the ceiling, getting closer to the throne room.

However, as he began to slip past two more of the palace guards, one of the doors next to them opened.

Alicia Acorn, Sally's evil double stepped out and walked over to the guards.

"Hey, you two, I haven't seen Patch in a while. Has he come out of the Master bedroom yet?" She Asked.

"No Ma'am" One of the guards replied.

"Well then, go check on him. Make sure he hasn't nodded off or something".

Both of the guards marched away from Alicia, heading for the master bedroom.

Alicia then walked further down the corridor, before disappearing through two large doors on the side of the corridor.

Ash silently slipped through the door as it began to close and followed Alicia.

Unfortunately, Alicia then went through a large metal door, locking it behind her.

Then, suddenly, an alarm started blaring.

"Guys, an alarm has been set off. What's happened?" Ask asked over his team radio.

"**It appears that the guards have found a dead body**" Sally replied.

"Ah yes. That was me. Patch was walking out of the shower, so I took his head off" Mighty confessed.

"Well, in that case, weapons free!" Ash ordered.

No sooner had he finished his sentence, that a guard fell through the roof and crashed to the ground in front of him.

Espio then dropped down, plunging his katana into the guard's chest.

This was then followed by another guard crashing through the door at the far end, with Bunnie bashing his brains out with her hammer.

Another guard crashed through a nearby window, followed by Sally flying in.

This was followed by Mighty, Hershey and Fiona crashing through another door.

Julie-Su then crashed through another door, drenched in blood.

They all regrouped in front of the large metal door.

"Through there is the weapons vault" Fiona told them. "From there, we should easily be able to find the throne room".

She then walked up to the door, grabbed hold of the handle and tried to pull it open.

Nothing.

"Let me give it a go" Julie-Su told them.

As the others backed away, Julie gave an almighty swing of her axe, blowing the door clean off it's hinges.

The Devils then rushed inside, with Ash dropping down from the ceiling.

The room was light with a dark blue light, glowing from the walls.

In front of the group, there was a state-of-the-art workbench with a strange machine part on it.

Next to the workbench stood a dimensional gate.

"Great. We can use this to get back to our world". Fiona told them.

Suddenly, however, an energy blast came out of nowhere and almost hit the group.

They span round to see Boomer Walrus, Rotor's evil double, stepping through the door they'd just come through, followed by a group of castle guards.

Ash wasted no time in levelling his energy weapon and pumping them full of high energy pellets.

"Right. You four fire up the dimensional gate" Ash instructed, pointing at Sally, Mighty, Hershey and Julie-Su. "The rest of us, head to the throne room".

The four then exited the weapons vault and headed to the throne room.

After a short while of searching around and mowing down castle guards, they came across two large doors.

"This is it" Fiona told the others as she kicked through the doors.

Inside the room, it was completely empty, except for the throne at the opposite end of the room.

"If I remember it correctly, the Beryl should still be hidden in a drawer underneath the throne" Fiona said.

They began advancing towards the throne.

Suddenly, however, Alicia Acorn leapt out from behind one of the doors, brandishing a pistol and shooting Ash in the shoulder with it, but to no avail.

However, she'd failed to notice Espio readying his katana.

She only noticed this when Espio brought it down on her neck, taking her head clean off.

As this happened, Fiona ran round the back of the throne and removed the aforementioned drawer from underneath it.

Inside was a collection of strange shiny gems.

"Right. That's good. Mow we can get out of here". Espio said.

However, as they made their first moves to leave, many of the castle guards burst through the doors, lead by Miles Prower, Tails's evil double.

The Devils wasted no time in putting them down.

They then bolted back to the weapons vault to find the other four devils under attack from more armed guards.

"We've got the Beryl! Let's go!" Yelled Ash to his teammates.

The eight devils then stepped through the dimensional gate and back into their world, shutting it off as soon as possible to prevent any more guards coming through.

* * *

As the devils took the drawer full of Anarchy Beryl back to their base, they knew that they still needed to overcome a big obstacle in order to use them.

They needed to create a telepathic link with them.

Typically speaking, this wasn't an easy task. In fact, very few people had actually pulled it off, as it required intense focus and willpower.

Once they got the Beryl back to their base, they wasted no time on trying to accomplish this.

Their method of going about this involved Nicole attaching sensor nodes to the beryl.

More sensor nodes were then placed on the bodies of the eight devils.

Nicole then instructed them on concentrating hard on the Beryl.

The group then began concentrating hard, some of them closing their eyes and putting on of their arms out in front of them.

This didn't do much, however, as they were still no closer to linking with the gems 20 minutes after they'd started.

Their readings had gone up a little bit, but that was about it.

It was then, however, that Ash remembered Tikal's prayer about the power of chaos.

He decided to use that, but change it to Anarchy instead.

_The servers are the many Anarchy._

_Anarchy is power, power enriched by the heart._

_The controller serves to unify the anarchy._

It was after Ash finished the prayer that his readings began to slowly rise.

After a short while, Ash's hair began to begin flashing white.

Then, suddenly, Ash became engulfed in a massive ball of chaos energy.

The force of this launched the other seven devils in opposite directions.

They just stared at Ash as he radiated Anarchy energy, screaming as he did it.

Finally, with a snap of his fingers, Ash stopped screaming and the energy died out.

Ash then turned round to face his group.

"Well...that's new!" He said happily.

"Okay, just how the fuck did you pull that off?" Demanded Julie-Su.

"Simple. I just focused extremely hard whilst reciting Tikal's prayer, except I changed it to be about Anarchy". Ash explained.

However, the group then noticed that something was up with Sally's face.

It was viciously radiating bright anarchy energy.

When it cleared, their jaws dropped.

Sally's face was flesh and blood again.

Sally grinned. She knew what had happened.

"Well now. Let's not waste any more time" She said, pulling up her mouth cover and hood.

The others nodded, pulling up their own mouth covers and hoods.

"Okay team. The end is now in sight. All we need to do now is eliminate Naugus" Ash told the others.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Operation Endgame has begun..."


End file.
